A Game of Cones * Abby Collette * Ice Cream Parlor Mystery #2

As a chilly autumn settles over Chagrin Falls, an ice cream shop owner trying to keep business alive with warm, seasonal treats gets frozen in her tracks when a real estate developer is murdered, making her close friend the prime suspect.

The Story: Written by prominent, USA Today bestselling cozy mystery author Abby Collette, this delectable second installment in the celebrated Ice Cream Parlor Mystery series turns a crisp Ohio autumn into a fast-paced, high-stakes puzzle box. Collette masterfully balances mouthwatering seasonal desserts with a dark, small-town conspiracy.

The plot follows the intuitive Bronwyn Crewse, who has successfully put down roots back home by managing Crewse Creamery, her family's beloved ice cream shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. With October bringing chilly weather, Bronwyn coordinates a clever strategy to keep customers coming through the door, introducing warm, festive options like apple cider floats and sweet pumpkin spice bakes. Her shop's quiet routine permanently fractures when a wealthy, aggressive real estate developer is found murdered. The timeline hits a highly volatile crisis point when the local detectives turn their sights on a close family friend as the primary target, threatening to dismantle the tight-knit community's safety parameters.

Rather than letting the case grow cold, the story builds excellent drawing-room tension as Bronwyn launches her own counter-campaign to sift through a massive suspect pool of disgruntled business owners, corporate plotters, and suspicious outsiders. Moving smoothly through historic village squares, hidden local properties, and chaotic kitchen preps, the plot weaves sharp cultural humor with classic whodunit logic to keep readers guessing until the final scoop. Published as a standout pacy whodunit by Berkley Prime Crime, this charming, recipe-filled mystery serves as an essential showpiece for culinary cozy shelves.

Perfect For: Devotees of traditional, fast-reading culinary cozy mysteries and amateur sleuth stories with diverse casts like the works of Mia P. Manansala, Vivien Chien, or Valerie Burns; readers keeping pace with Bronwyn Crewse’s ongoing Ohio business ventures; and fiction lovers who appreciate cozy autumn settings, multigenerational family dynamics, and bonus homemade dessert recipes.

Published 2021 by Berkely Prime Crime, Penguin Publishing Group, stated First Edition.

Cozy Mysteries / Culinary & Ice Cream Shop Whodunits / Amateur Female Sleuths / African American Crime Fiction / Series Continuations